Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Monday.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on TECH. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Scotiabank upped their target price on Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Baird R W downgraded Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $82.14.

Bio-Techne Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of TECH stock opened at $60.24 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $70.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $72.52. Bio-Techne has a 1-year low of $56.60 and a 1-year high of $85.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.52 billion, a PE ratio of 60.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 3.94 and a quick ratio of 2.77.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.73% and a net margin of 13.22%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Bio-Techne will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Monday, February 17th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total transaction of $1,035,067.68. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 39,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,014,619.16. This represents a 25.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total value of $122,685.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,976 shares in the company, valued at $130,336.96. This trade represents a 48.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bio-Techne

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,594,608 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,339,370,000 after buying an additional 275,644 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,654,267 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $767,428,000 after buying an additional 1,229,954 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,395,993 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $511,232,000 after buying an additional 95,133 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,702,942 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $338,756,000 after buying an additional 317,349 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,001,296 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $287,488,000 after buying an additional 98,660 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Bio-Techne Company Profile

Bio-Techne Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells life science reagents, instruments, and services for the research and clinical diagnostic markets in the United States, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Greater China, rest of Asia-Pacific, and internationally.